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This course will explore the spectacular historical, cultural, and artistic spaces that comprise the Vatican in Rome, in particular St. Peter's Piazza and Basilica, the Papal Palace, and the Vatican Library and Museum. Our central concern will be to examine the material culture of the Vatican; meaning its physical and visual manifestation through architecture, sculpture, painting, decorative arts, books, manuscripts; and to explore this unique effort to manifest the most heavenly and spiritual spaces on earth. While greatest emphasis will be placed on the Renaissance and Baroque periods, ca. 1475-1650, this course will also include an overview of the history of the Christianity (and, by extension, the history of the papacy) from its early Christian origins in ancient Rome, through the Protestant Reformation, and onwards to the foundation of the Vatican Museum during the Enlightenment. This is also very much a hands-on course as well, and will therefore involve regular interaction with medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Enlightenment-era rare books and manuscripts directly related to the Vatican in the collections of the Sheridan Libraries (in the newly built Brody Learning Commons on the Homewood Campus), in addition to a special visit to the Walters Art Museum.